The present invention relates to medicinal dispensing devices and labels used therewith.
The dispensing of various medicines and drugs to patients in a medical facility is necessarily a time consuming task that is generally complicated by the usual large number of patients to be served. This is further complicated by the ever changing composition of patients with continuous admissions and discharges.
It is thus necessary for the person dispensing medicine to a patient to carefully examine the instructions furnished each patient and dispense a particular medication and dosage.
In addition, medical facilities which dispense numerous dosages of medication may wish to pre-package the various dosages for each medication in single-use form, in a disposable container having a label identifying the container contents. Pre-packaging of pharmaceuticals eliminates the need to transfer a particular dosage from a bulk container to an individual container, for example at a hospital pharmacy, in an uncovered receptacle, before it reaches the intended patient. Pre-packaging thus minimizes contamination and mistakes which might occur in the dispensing of various medications.
Various medicinal dispensing devices are known in the prior art. For example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,856, assigned to the same assignee of the present invention, and whose disclosure is incorporated by reference herein, is disclosed a medicinal dispensing device for a multiplicity of dosages of a pharmaceutical product. That device comprises a plurality of flanges, each having corners and being attachably connected along weakened lines. A chamber with an outer opening depends from each flange, and a continuous closure member then covers the chambers, with the closure member also being perforated along lines closely corresponding to the weakened lines of the flanges. Certain portions of the interior surface of the closure member are provided with a tacky adhesive coating that is in contact with the flanges and certain other areas of the interior surface of the closure member which are non-tacky and covering the chamber openings. At least one corner of each flange is removed in a cut-away area so that the existing corner of the closure member overlies the cut-away area to function as a lift tab.
In a preferred embodiment of that invention, 25 flanges are detachably connected in a 5.times.5 pattern, there being a first set of parallel weakened lines in the flanges and a second set of parallel lines being perpendicular to the first set of parallel lines. The connection of the flanges, one to the other, are weaker along the first set of parallel lines and are stronger along the second set of parallel lines whereby it is much easier to sever the set of 25 flanges into five sets of five flanges along the first set of parallel lines. Furthermore, at nine of the intersections between the first and second parallel lines, there are provided circular punched openings, each of which acts as a cutaway area for the four flanges meeting at the intersection of the first and second parallel lines, with the nine punched openings providing at least one cut-away area for each of the 25 flanges.
That type of medicinal dispensing device utilized a closure member comprised of a base bearing a tacky adhesive coating on one surface thereof. A non-stick liner comprised of circular portions prevents the contents of the chamber from becoming adhered to the tacky surface as shown in FIGS. 1-3 and 7 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,856. The outer surface of each of the plurality of closure members 22 was adapted to contain writing or other instructions to the patient or professional practitioner. As shown in FIG. 7 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,856, one sheet could be used to prepare 25 dosages, since one sheet would provide 25 individual dosage labels to be placed on top of the chamber.
The design of the dimensions and characteristics of the sheet shown in FIG. 7 enabled information to be hand written onto each of the 25 labels produced, for example, information about content, dosage, manufacturer, etc. In addition, that sheet of labels was also utilizable with early types of printers (e.g., dot matrix printers) attached to personal computers which utilized continuous feeding, perforated sheets (e.g., 8.5 inches by 11 inches) attached to one another for printing matter thereon. The sheet design of the '856 patent enabled the entire sheet to be utilized for printing 25 labels, without any concomitant waste of unused paper.
With the advance of computers and associated printers, laser and bubble jet printers are commonplace. Rather than printing on continuous feed perforated sheets however, these printers generally use standard paper sizes, e.g., 8.5 inches by 11 inches, which can either be manually fed, or automatically fed via a paper cartridge to impart an image thereon. Since the label sheet of the '856 invention was not of the standard page size of 8.5 inches by 11 inches, the label sheet had the potential for not being utilizable with laser printers or required adapting the printer to the unusual size of the sheet.
Since these laser printers are adapted to utilize standard size papers, the present invention enables the use of the sheet portion 22 of the '856 invention with laser and bubble jet printers by permitting the same 5.times.5 arrangement of labels to be produced at the upper portion of the sheet, with additional labels being printed at the lower portion of the sheet, on a standard 8.5 inch by 11 inch sheet. The sizes and numbers of additional labels which may be printed on the lower portion of the label sheet can be varied depending upon the circumstances of use. One embodiment of the invention includes six 1 by 3 inch labels as the additional labels. The indicia used to print on all the labels of the sheet of the present invention can be applied manually or by computer program of a type which is well within the knowledge of one skilled in the art.
Using standard size sheets, such as those of the present invention, minimizes jamming which might occur on certain printers if oddly-sized sheets were inserted therein. Jamming of label sheets is a great concern to the end user because of the extremely tacky nature of the adhesive utilized on the underside of the sheet used to make the 5.times.5 labels. Jamming of an adhesive sheet, used with such medicinal dispensing devices, is to be avoided. If the protective backing is removed during the printing process and the adhesive contacts the roller or other parts of a laser or other similar type of printer, it could cause serious damage to the printer and associated components, thus causing the end user to incur extreme aggravation, down time in printing additional labels which may be urgent in a hospital and emergency setting and substantial repair costs. Accordingly, a need exists for a laser label to be used in connection with a medicinal dispensing device.
Other types of medicinal devices are disclosed in the following U.S. Patents, the full disclosures of which are also incorporated by reference herein: U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,651; U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,541; U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,065; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,221,329 (Braverman).